The Next Day
by Airewen
Summary: This is an UNAUTHORIZED sequel to Vee's Right Here All Along. Read that, it's much better than this. In fact, ignore this altogether.


Disclaimer: The puppets and their stage belong to JKR…I just like pulling the strings.

A/N: This is a sequel to the fic Right Here All Along by Vee at http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=462797 .

The Next Day

At breakfast Hermione tried desperately to act normal. She didn't want Harry to suspect anything, but more importantly, she didn't want to give Ron the impression that last night had meant more to her than a strange bout of sleepwalking. 

"Could you pass a piece of toast," she said to Ron nonchalantly. 

Ron looked at her expectantly, smiled slightly and handed her the toast. When she reached out and grabbed the toast, Ron let his fingers lightly caress hers for a moment before she withdrew her hand. Ron noticed a slight pinkness to her hue and smiled to himself at the thought of his fingers being its cause. His ears began burning and he knew they were red, but it didn't bother him for once.

Harry, noticing the quiet between the two still thought they were in a fight. He suggested a visit to Hagrid's and they agreed quietly. _This is ridiculous,_ Harry thought. _Why do they have to be so stubborn?_

Hermione turned all her concentration on her plate of food to avoid looking at either of them and showing her blushing cheeks. She didn't want to show Ron how much his touch had affected her. _How _dare_ he toy with me that way! After all his gentlemanly chivalry this morning! Him and that Invisibility Cloak, and his whispering close to me._ Her cheeks flushed anew with the memory of how close their lips had been. Her thoughts drifted to their bodies lying beside one another the night before. She thought about how she had felt when she thought he was asleep. She had to hide a mischievous smile when she thought about his normal male reaction, the warmth of his body against her and the smell of him that had seemed to envelop her.

"Are you coming, Mione," Ron's voice cut through her daze. He and Harry were standing in front of her obviously wondering why she was still sitting in front of what she realized was now an empty table. All the food and plates had been cleared away.

"Yes, sorry, I'm a little tired," she explained.

"I thought you said you 'slept well'," Ron teased quietly. She shot him a look that could freeze water.

"I thought I told you not to call me Mione," she replied coolly. Harry sighed and the three walked across the school grounds to Hagrid's place in silence.

Hagrid's excitement over the new baby culpinewts was a welcome diversion to the thoughts that swam through both Ron and Hermione's heads, and Harry was glad to be in the company of someone who wasn't tense or irritable. By the time the three of them left Hagrids house they were chattering away about culpinewts and envisioning their painful attacks on Malfoy in the next Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Ron and Hermione had almost forgotten the morning's events and Harry was glad to see that they had gotten over whatever they had been fighting about this time. They spent the rest of the afternoon in the Common Room, Harry and Ron playing chess—to which, to Ron's delight, Hermione paid more attention to than usual—and Hermione trying to do a bit of light reading on the couch beside them. At 10 p.m. Hermione finally closed her volume of _Secrets of the Anamagi_ and announced she was going to bed. She couldn't help but notice the twinkle in Ron's eye as he told her he hoped she "slept well again" tonight. She assured him that she couldn't hope to sleep _as well as she had last night_, but that she did plan to sleep _soundly_. Flustered, Hermione made he way upstairs and prepared herself for bed.

"What was all that about," Harry asked Ron as they cleared the chessboard and packed up their things.

"What was what about?"

"All that stuff about sleeping 'soundly'? What on earth do you think she was going on about?"

"Oh, I was referring to her grumpy mood today," Ron lied. "I think it was a come back, but I didn't get it."

Harry laughed and Ron hoped that his lie had put the conversation out of Harry's mind.

**

Ron grabbed the watch that sat at the table beside his bed. 1:00 am. It was late—very late, but Ron couldn't seem to get to sleep. He kept envisioning her walking in again. He closed his eyes and let his mind recall her figure as she crawled into bed with him. It was so real he could almost feel her presence near him. He could almost feel her pulling back the covers to crawl in with him—wait a minute. He _did_ feel her pulling back the covers!

His eyes shot open to see Hermione, once again asleep, slowly getting into his bed again. This time he did not fight it. He didn't try to wake her. He simply allowed his arms to wrap around her and he pulled her close to him. Her proximity was doing things to his body he knew she wouldn't approve of. He pulled away a little—he didn't think she would like him to be pressed against her in his current state. And then she did something he hadn't expected. 

She pressed herself even tighter against him. He gulped and tried to calm himself. She nestled her head against his chest and his chin fit snugly on top of her head. He breathed in the scent of her hair. He couldn't quite place it—he had no clue what the smell was, but it was sweet, and tantalizing, and yet gentle and subtle. He knew this time she _had_ to go—that they were risking being caught like this again on a Monday morning. Yesterday was different—he was sure that his roommates would sleep in yesterday. But today was not a weekend. It was a school day and they would all be awake very early.

"Hermione," he whispered.

"Shhh," she replied. "You're going to wake everyone up."

She was awake? He couldn't believe it! Hermione Granger was doing something wholly inappropriate, and worse against the rules, _consciously_. _We really _have_ been a bad influence on her_, he thought. He looked down upon her face and saw that her eyes were closed.

"Hermione," he whispered again, "this is risky." 

This time she didn't reply. Was she not awake after all? Maybe she had spoken in her sleep. He shook her gently. Still no response.

"Hermione, you've overslept—you've missed Potions!"

She lay still and quiet, breathing gently. She was _definitely_ not awake. Ron sighed, pulled her even closer and let himself go. He wanted to stay awake. He didn't want to miss a moment of this, but the serenity of having her in his arms lured his eyes close until once again he was sleeping away the precious moments he had with her. 

**

Hermione awoke feeling refreshed and content. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to fully awake. Her arms gripped tightly against something and she realized once again that a warm body surrounded her. The scent of male and sleepiness filled her senses again and instantly she knew where she was. _She had done it again? What had she been thinking?_ Hermione reprimanded herself and opened her eyes. She was inches from Ron's face and his arms were tightly wrapped around her. She gently touched his cheek and tenderly traced the outline of his jaw with her fingers. She didn't want to wake him, but she just couldn't resist.

"Don't go," he muttered sleepily. She started and instinctively his arms tightened around her slightly. "Don't go," he repeated.

"I have to Ron, everyone will be waking up soon."

"Fine, but let's not pretend that nothing happened again."

"What do you mean?"

"We have to talk about—" just at that moment there was a noise as Dean tossed a bit in his sleep and the two fell absolutely silent. When he was certain that Dean was not awake he slowly—and reluctantly—arose from the bed and walked to Harry's trunk again. Hermione sat up on the bed, knowing what he was going to get. She admired his frame as he moved and had to suppress a smile when he bent over the trunk to get the Cloak. He walked back to the bed, sat down across from her and pulled the Cloak over her protectively. Something about the tenderness in his action pulled at the knot in Hermione's stomach. "Mione,"

"I told you not to call me that," she teased.

"Mione," he repeated more gently, as if savoring the word. "We _need_ to talk. I'll come to the library this afternoon after Divination." His head was very close to hers again and she had to fight to control the urge to kiss his temple.

"I'll see you at breakfast," she muttered and, giving into the impulse, stroked his face with her invisible hand. It took him by surprise, but he smiled.

"See you at breakfast," he repeated.


End file.
